Walnut Chest of Drawers

This was fun project to do. Well, a least it was easier than the crib I just finished prior to this. It’s constructed primarily of walnut, with cherry drawers and internal pieces. The four corners are 8/4 squared up to about 1 7/8” and then a dado was ran down them for the the face and sides to fit into. All the drawers were constructed with finger joints. This was my first time making finger joints of this size, so there was a bit of a learning curve to get the jig set up right. They came out pretty good, with a super tight fit. Would have done dovetails, but I only have a half-blind jig so I didn’t feel the need to go that route. That and I was in a bit of a time crunch. Baby was knocking on the door and this thing needed to get finished now! The slides used are all full extension and self closing. The drawer faces themselves were cut to fit extremely tight into the face of the chest. I wanted as little gap as possible to make for a smooth, flush face all the way down. This proved to be pretty tedious, but the end result was pretty good. The top for this came by way of a large piece of 5/4×14” S4S walnut that I got really lucky in finding. All I can ever seem to find is no wider than 8” or so, so this really made for a cleaner looking top. But getting that bevel on it was a bit of a challenge. I don’t a chamfer bit big enough to cut all the way through, so I had to get creative with the table saw. And because of the size of the top, the ends could not be cut with top lying flat, so I used this little contraption.

What you’re looking at is a fence I made a while back to replace the POS one that came with the saw. It’s 3×3 extruded aluminum riding on composite bearings. Then I added some more bearings and a short piece of 1.5×3 to the top to make for a cross cutting jig for doing stuff like this or cutting splines into the corners of boxes and picture frames. It worked very well and held that big ol’ top very well.

After it was cut and sanded, the whole thing a shot of oil and three coats of arm-r-seal satin poly. Love that stuff!

Anyway, got this moved up stairs on a Tuesday. Baby showed up the next night! Couldn’t have timed it better if I tried.

-- They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

What a beautiful piece of furniture. I just love the way the walnut looks and your cabinet is wonderful. Congrats to you and your wife on your newborn! Mine is about 9 months old now and most of my recent projects have been on the nursery or other baby-related things.

The beetle in the background has taken a backseat for a while now. But with the major wood projects out the way, hopefully that will change. It’s a 69 with a whole slew of mods. You can check the progress here if you’d like.http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=395897

And thanks for the congrats. It’s only been two weeks now. Been pee’d on a dozen times now.

-- They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

It’s not often you see this quality of workmanship combined with a clean, modern design. I love the contrast between the side panel and the posts; is that cherry against walnut? And no less than three coats of Arm-R-Seal! I bet that if your baby ever gets kids of their own, this chest of drawers will still be like new…

Actually, the side panels are 1/4” walnut ply. The pic makes it look a bit more contrasting than it really is. I have however used a cherry/walnut combo on other projects. Makes for a great combination.

-- They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

WW, you are surly the only guy in town that uses a 69 bug for a clamp rack … How innovative …Great job on this chest, flush drawer (and door) fronts can be a real challenge. Your spacing looks perfect in the photos. I really admire your use of grain pattern expression, it just looks right and flows well.

Beautiful job.I really like your chest of drawers.A walnut chest of drawers is great for bedrooms.As with any type of furniture that you buy, it is crucial that you pat attention to how well it is made so you can be sure that you will be using it for a long time to come.